Breastfeeding time denied
Associated Press reports that Sophie Currier was denied the extra time requested for her medical exams by a Superior Court Judge.
A Superior Court judge today ruled Sophie Currier would have to take the exam during the time allotted.
A statement from her lawyers says they’re filing an appeal with a single justice to the Appeals Court.
Currier says that if she doesn’t nurse her daughter or pump breast milk every two to three hours, she risks medical complications.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady says Currier has other options, including delaying when she takes the exam.
But Currier says the judge’s conclusion that there’s no harm in a woman putting her career off for a year is the basis of discrimination.
I’m imagining the important exams I’ve taken in my adult life. To become a teacher I took a series of expensive exams. I wonder if I would have been able to pass all of them if I was engorged and leaking over my desk. I wonder if I would have been able to pass if I was running a hands-free electric double pump while analyzing literature.
What do you think? Is this discrimination? Or should she have to follow the rules like everyone else, breastfeeding or not. She’s already been given other accommodations and flunked the test once. Is breastfeeding so important she should get extra time?
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September 20th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Should a mother care for her child? Caring for a child usually includes some form of financial support. Shelter, food, clothing and medical care generally require some infusion of MONEY. Mom must be able to get a job in order to properly care for her child, unless she is fortunate enough to have someone who will provide financially for her and her child. Delaying activities that are necessary for EMPLOYMENT creates an impediment to a mother’s ability to properly care for her child.
This ruling is BS.
September 20th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Yes, the ruling is discrimination.
September 26th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
As a nursing mom (who got her PhD in Organic Chemistry two years ago), I just wanted to say that EVERYONE who takes the doctoral exams is given a 45 minute break from the tests, not just folks with a disability. Plus, if you finish one section early, you can use the rest of the time as a break.
I don’t have any issues with her getting to take the 9 hour exam over two days instead of one because of her disabilities. But honestly, 22 minutes is plenty of time to pump milk for a baby if you use an electric pump — her exam is split into two days, that’s 4.5 hours of tests per day with a 22 minute break each day. She can pump before the exam, take a break after 2 hours to pump, then pump again after 2 hours. 22 minutes isn’t ALOT of time, but it’s enough with an electric pump — especially considering that the school provided Sophie with the opportunity to pump in a private room and even to go off campus during the breaks in the tests. The school already went out of its way to accomodate Sophie’s disabilities, and Sophie is being a whiny brat, pushing for more special treatment because she’s nursing. To me, this isn’t about nursing, it’s about trying to game the system to get the best advantage to yourself. Seriously, why else would she schedule her final exam when she knows she’s going to be breastfeeding? She totally could’ve done her exams later, and considering she’s failed the exam once already, it might’ve been better for her to schedule the exam for later when she’s not sleep-deprived or engorged. She’s making the rest of us nursing moms look bad and I’m really pissed about it.
Given that she’s failed the test before, I wouldn’t be surprised if she wanted an extra hour to run home (since she was allowed to), and scan through literature hoping to cram in just a little more information between the sections.